Intel at the edge

Zafar Anjum |
Aug. 18, 2011

The future of wireless network architecture relies on distributed intelligence that meets the performance demands of the new wireless world without compromising security or quality of service, says Ben Mesfin, director and general manager, Wireless Network Solutions (WNS) of Motorola Solutions Asia Pacific.

He also cites the example of the use of Motorola Solutions in the Guangdong Games.

"For a wireless network to work, not only you need a robust infrastructure but also a robust management system and a robust security system that could scale," he says.

WinG 5.0

Finally, we come to discuss the WinG 5.0 architecture. "We wanted an architecture that could support largescale users and provide the reliability," he says. "What we realised was that a couple of developments were taking place in parallel. Today's architecture is more like spoke and hub. We are pumping in a lot of data on the network to the switches and the switches are sending the data back out. This is very inefficient in a way. You are creating a lot of bottleneck in the network. The customer experience is being affected and cost is growing as now you need to keep adding the switches."

To counter this, what is needed is a wireless LAN solution capable of greater intelligence at the network's edge to optimise traffic flow without compromising security or quality of service and driving up cost. This is exactly what WinG 5.0 does.

"So, last year we launched a new architecture called WinG 5.0." he says. "Basically, it addresses fundamental issues. You can maintain your spoke and hub architecture but now we are going to distribute the intelligence into the end points so that the amount of traffic coming to the networks is reduced. So you can do local security and intrusion detection-all could be done by the AP [access point]. So, it is a hybrid approach of switch with intelligence on APs. It is a real breakthrough and no one else today is offering that."

According to him, distributed intelligence allows more of the on-site data flow to be routed internally on the edge of the network using the 11n access points, rather than sending that data to the wireless controller and back.

"With this new architecture, you can upgrade your network (802.11n) without increasing cost and without adding to complexity," he adds.

"Greater intelligence at the edge of the network can also make IT budgets go further, offering advantages in both capital and operational expenditures," he says.

"In short, the future of wireless network architecture relies on distributed intelligence that meets the performance demands of the new wireless world without compromising security or quality of service."